Shania Twain shares life-changing side effect of disease common among celebrities

Shania Twain has opened up about her battle with Lyme disease, including the life-changing impact it had on her career.

The 60-year-old Queen of Country Pop was diagnosed with the illness in 2003 after she was bitten by a tick while horseback riding.

After experiencing spells of dizziness and loss of balance while on stage performing, she was finally diagnosed.

For those who are unfamiliar, Lyme disease is a bacterial infection that can be spread to humans by infected ticks.

A slew of celebrities have come forward with diagnoses over the years, including Twain, Bella Hadid, Justin Timberlake, and Justin Bieber.

However, as well as the expected symptoms, Twain began experiencing problems with her voice - something that took ‘several years’ for doctors to connect to Lyme disease.

The infection caused dysphonia and damaged the nerves connected to her vocal cords, forcing her to step away from the music industry for years to undergo vocal rehabilitation and two open throat surgeries.

Twain had to undergo multiple surgeries as well as vocal rehabilitation (David Becker/Getty Images)

Speaking about the difficult time and how she overcame it on The Romesh Ranganathan Show podcast, the singer described the experience as ‘terrible’.

She explained, “I lost my voice to Lyme disease, and that lasted quite a while. It was terrible. I lost projection, and I won’t go into the science of it, but it was something that would not ever repair.

“Because it was nerve damage. Not the vocal chords but the nerves, the neurology, and there’s a treatment where they did open my neck from the front, it's open throat surgery.”

The country legend explained: “They insert little Gore-Tex crutches, and they will be there in 10,000 years from now. They stabilise where the nerve atrophy is.

“So now I’m able to sing live again and sustain notes and be loud if I want. My voice is different. You can tell it’s kind of like gravely, I’ve got a little fry in there.”

Explaining that she’s a ‘glass half full’ kind of person, Twain said her new voice ‘‘added to the character of her singing’ and she ‘loves it’.

She explained how she tries to look on the bright side as the vocal issues were not life-threatening (YouTube/The Romesh Ranganathan Show)

She also expressed her gratitude that although it impacted her career massively, the Lyme disease was not life-threatening.

She told the host: “Lucky me because the Lyme disease could have attacked my heart, my brain, my kidneys. Ironically, it attacked my laryngeal area.

“So yeah, you could look at that in any way you want, but it wasn’t life-threatening. That’s a blessing.”

In her 2022 documentary, Not Just A Girl, Shania opened up on her ‘scary symptoms’.

She explained: "My symptoms were quite scary because before I was diagnosed, I was on stage very dizzy. I was losing my balance. I was afraid I was going to fall off the stage.”

“I was having these very, very, very millisecond blackouts, but regularly, every minute or every 30 seconds."

She admitted, "My voice was never the same again. I thought I'd lost my voice forever. I thought that was it, [and] I would never, ever sing again.”